Wednesday 4 January 2017 19:50, UK
Tottenham take on Chelsea at White Hart Lane live on Sky Sports on Wednesday, but which team will come out on top?
Sky Sports pundit Danny Higginbotham looks back at Chelsea's narrow 2-1 victory against Tottenham on November 26 to give his insight on what kind of game we can expect when these two sides face each other again on Wednesday.
How did Tottenham try to counter Chelsea's 3-4-3 last time?
Spurs were one of the main tests that Chelsea have had this season when they came back against Tottenham.
A lot of people associate Tottenham with a 4-2-3-1 but what they did in this particular situation was they took the game to Chelsea and played what very much looked like a 4-1-4-1.
They pushed Mousa Dembele a bit further forward. Chelsea know how narrow Tottenham's players behind Harry Kane play and it was no different even when there was four midfielders. What you found is the midfield four all played narrow behind Kane.
N'Golo Kante and Nemanja Matic, usually dominate the central midfield areas but they couldn't because Tottenham got themselves on the front foot.
The question was asked whether Matic and Kante could cover two midfielders each defensively. It was very difficult for them.
There started to be spaces opening up in the back four and the defensive midfielders. If you look back at Tottenham's opening goal that's exactly how it came about.
Christian Eriksen made a great run, finding himself in space on the edge of the 18-yard box and that enabled them to be so dominant.
Kyle Walker went forward while Kevin Wimmer on the left was more defensive so Victor Wanyama acted as a shield with the two centre backs pushing up who could cover the wide areas. It was the first time we saw Chelsea under a lot of pressure since they went to this 3-4-3 system.
So how did Antonio Conte change things around?
Dembele was a little bit higher up, with Wanyama protecting in a 4-1-4-1.
What Chelsea did then, with Diego Costa and Eden Hazard in particular, is they looked to stretch themselves. They stretched the game very well.
Gaps started to appear between the midfield and defence of Spurs. Wanyama didn't know what to do at the time. Pedro was starting to come into narrower areas.
Victor Moses was even getting forward, with Marcos Alonso down the other side. Chelsea attack with five and defend with five. But because Tottenham had been so dominant in the midfield area, Chelsea committed more men forward.
It meant Tottenham's midfield four had to come back but they weren't getting back in time. There started to be gaps between Spurs' midfield and their defence.
Why could Tottenham not stop Chelsea's attack?
Pedro scored the equaliser. He got into those gaps and then the goal that won the game for Chelsea was a ball down the left-hand side.
The Spurs fullbacks by that point are thinking of getting higher up the pitch to give more support. Moses found himself free at the far post and put the ball into the back of the net.
It was fantastic by Chelsea because questions were asked by Tottenham. Everybody looked at Tottenham and thought "this is how you play against Chelsea".
They were fantastic for the first part of the game but full credit to Conte. He changed a few things, got Tottenham on the back foot and deservedly Chelsea won the game.
